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Should be an interesting year. I could see Ted, Stan and Jackie all receiving the top spot. One thing I noticed when looking up data on baseball gauge is this year was the peak for walk rate in the history of MLB.

1) Stan Musial - Great bat but it is his glovework that makes the difference
2) Ted Williams - Higher standard deviations in run scoring in the AL versus the NL (0.913 v 0.953) but still the best bat
3) Jackie Robinson - Closer to #5 than to #2
4) Mel Parnell - 315 innings with good run prevention
5) Eddie Joost - similar value at the plate to Robinson, better defensive value. They are very close
6) Ralph Kiner - 2nd best bat but below average glove
7) Bob Lemon - good hitting helps him make the list
8) Vern Stephens
9) Pee Wee Reese
10) Virgil Trucks - not good at the plate

One thing I didn't mention above is Don Newcombe pitched an additional 34 innings in the minor leagues before he became the best pitcher on the Dodgers roster. He pitched well enough in Montreal to debut in 1948 for the Dodgers but informal quotas were almost certainly holding him back. This is also the same reason he repeated "B" level Nashua - the Dodgers AA farm team in Fort Worth, Texas was not integrated. 34 more innings would add 14% more playing time to his numbers and that slides him up to #13 on my list before I look at his postseason work. He also led the league in strikeout rate so I would anticipate the FIP WAR calculators will like him.

3. Ted Williams - a ridiculous offensive season that would rank #1 in many years

4. Roy Campanella - defense defense defense; led in games, innings, putouts, caught stealing %, range factor/G & range factor/9, with 131 OPS+ as a bonus; I see him even with Jackie as MLB's top defender for '49

Baseball Reference. I also have a large personal database of statistics relating to Campy's career.

In addition to the leaderboad stats I cited in my ballot, Campy was second in assists and third in caught stealing as a raw number (though his reputation was severely suppressing baserunning attempts against him). Campy was by far MLB's elite defensive catcher at this time. You'll hear more about Campy from me presently. ;)